


soft kitty, warm kitty

by SapphiraBlue



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kittens, Mild Angst, Tendou's cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-10-12 15:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10494090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphiraBlue/pseuds/SapphiraBlue
Summary: 'Tendou Satori was not, generally, a person that people saw as a cat person. His outward appearance rather suggest an exotic pet, perhaps; maybe a gecko, or even perhaps a spider? Most people agreed that if Tendou Satori even owned a pet, it would be some kind of creepy crawly, with scales and fangs.These people would be patently wrong, as usual when people make assumptions about Tendou Satori.'The adventures of Miracle Boy Tendou Satori and his wonderful fat cat.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [miracleboysatori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miracleboysatori/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Kat!! I hope you enjoy this fic ^.^

Tendou Satori was not, generally, a person that people saw as a cat person. His outward appearance rather suggest an exotic pet, perhaps; maybe a gecko, or even perhaps a spider? Most people agreed that if Tendou Satori even owned a pet, it would be some kind of creepy crawly, with scales and fangs.

These people would be patently wrong, as usual when people make assumptions about Tendou Satori. Not only do creepy crawlies of all types make his skin crawl, he is downright deathly afraid of all manner of reptiles, even the most harmless of Anole gecko.

No, Tendou Satori prefers the more mundane pet options out there; he daydreams of perhaps owning a dog someday, once he moves out and starts his own life. But up 'til then, Tendou Satori makes do with his parents' very fat, very lovable cat, an old moggy named Hinata, after Hyuuga Hinata, of course.

Now, this cat wasn't just any old cat, oh no; she was only the most pedigreed Maine Coon cat that Tendou's parents could get their hands on. Only the best for their family, you see? What they hadn't quite reckoned with was her sheer size - as a Maine Coon she could grow to be the size of a small wildcat, and grow she did.

She was a gift to their precious son on his tenth birthday, and pictures from that time heavily featured a tiny Tendou with his missing front teeth, clutching Hinata in his arms. She always appeared to be smiling in those pictures, even though she was just a scrap of a kitten herself. She and Tendou were attached at the hip, as they say, for most of his childhood; when he came home from school she would be waiting at the door for him, and she would follow him around the house and curl up on his lap or next to him as he did his homework or slept.

As Tendou grew through the years, so did she; although, as Tendou stretched taller and taller, she stretched rounder and rounder, growing larger until she had reached her final size at 27 pounds when Tendou was just 14 years old. Her fondness for sleeping square on Tendou's chest only intensified as she grew older, and soon he found himself needing to shove her off his chest lest she suffocate him under her fluff.

~o0o~

The first people outside his family to meet Hinata were his teammates, slowly but surely. Living in a school dorm was a first for Tendou, and he missed his darling companion dearly. After a week of near-sleeplessness because she wasn't purring him to sleep beside him, he snuck off campus and printed all the pictures he had of her at the nearest convenience shop. He even printed off the weird selfies he took with her in the background, paws tucked in and loafing comfortably on his clean laundry. On his way out the door, he impulse-bought a corkboard and some thumbtacks.

He spent the next two hours diligently working on a sort of visual shrine to his beloved kitten, neglecting both his homework and his newfound teammates to get it _just right._

Afterwards, he tucked himself into bed, clutched a pillow to his chest, and stared at the corkboard on the opposite wall until his eyes blurred and he finally closed them.

This became par for the course; Tendou made sure his parents were taking proper care of his princess, and they sent him daily updates on her. They often sent snippets of video that had Tendou smiling for hours afterwards. Tendou cautiously expected some kinda ribbing about a girlfriend from his teammates, and was pleasantly surprised when nobody seemed to care. They took notice, for sure, but nobody seemed to want to make it their business at the expense of his privacy. It was a courtesy Tendou hadn't experienced before, and he came to aggressively appreciate it. This was par for the course until Tendou's third year at Shiratorizawa; by that time, his teammates knew he had a cat, but not necessarily how much he loved his kitty.

Things continued in this vein for several months, until Tendou woke up to a single blinking text message on his phone. His stomach sank, oddly; he figured he might've eaten something strange the night before. It was only as he was brushing his teeth that he realized that he never only got a single text from his parents; they usually sent a few photographs, or several messages at a time, never just the one.

Still, he told himself, maybe they were just running late? It was bound to happen someday, after all.

Shaking off his trepidation, Tendou opened the text, noting that it was from his mother. A few seconds later, the phone nearly fell from nerveless fingers, the message staring up at him from the screen:

_Hinata escaped from the house last night. We didn't know until this morning when she didn't show up for her breakfast. We're so sorry, precious. Your dad's already out looking for her. We'll find her as soon as possible._

Tendou was distracted all day, checking his phone at every opportunity, hoping for news of his precious baby. His teammates noticed this too, noticed the faint lines on his forehead, the tension riding high on his cheekbones where usually only a smile or a smirk rested. They noticed when he rushed out of the team lunch early, trying to be discreet, to make a frantic phone call back home.

That night was the first time one of his teammates saw the inside of Tendou Satori's dorm room. Oohira knocked on Tendou's door just after dinner, noting that he hadn't seen Tendou leave his room since he came back from practice. He cracked the door open and peered in when a shaky _Come in!_ sounded through the door.

Oohira found Tendou balled up on his bed, oozing misery and attempting to get his homework done. Oohira paused, a little baffled, and decided that something clearly had to be going on with him; he'd never seen Tendou so quiet and obviously out of sorts before, even when he caught a nasty cold.

Oohira carefully sat down next to Tendou on the bed, marveling that such a tall kid could fold down into such a small space.

They sat in silence for a bit, Tendou scratching away at his worksheet while Oohira stared at the corkboard on the opposite wall. Soon enough, Tendou's pencil dropped to the floor, and he shuffled around until he could lean against Oohira's side like some kind of lanky, red dog in want of affection. Oohira pretended not to notice, out of deference, perhaps, to Tendou's fragile emotional state.

They sat like that for a while, until Tendou started mumbling, eyes firmly fixated on his corkboard the entire time. Oohira listened quietly as the whole sad story came pouring out like some kind of nasty wound, and at some point he laid a gentle hand on Tendou's back in an attempt to comfort him. After that, Tendou seemed to calm down a bit, eventually falling asleep all curled up, head resting against Oohira's pillowy bicep.

Oohira tucked him in as gently as he knew how, and made sure to turn the lights off as he left the room. He stopped by Ushijima's room to let him know Tendou would be fine. He was unsurprised to run into the rest of the third year teammates somewhere along the way to his room, either.

~o0o~

Tendou's moping was better, but still apparent for the next few days, until his phone lit up with good news one morning.

Tendou rushed out of his dorm with his shirt on backwards, he was so excited to let everyone know his cat was ok, and was patiently sitting outside the front door waiting for breakfast that very morning.

His joy reached incandescent levels several weeks later, when his parents called him (in the middle of practice, no less!) to inform him that, incredibly, Hinata appeared to be pregnant! His mother had had her suspicions when Hinata appeared lethargic, but still ate well, even appearing to grow even larger. A vet visit was all it took to confirm; Tendou was about to be the proud grandfather to a litter of good-sized kittens.

As the time crawled nearer to when Hinata was slated to give birth, Tendou's anxiety once again mounted. He worried that Hinata would have trouble giving birth, or that the kittens would die, or any number of other unlikely scenarios. He wished he could go home and see her through the whole ordeal himself, but he doubted he could sneak out of campus easily.

He got the fateful call right as he was getting cleaned up in the locker room after a Friday evening practice session, and he tripped over a bench as he scrambled for his phone, tucked away in his gym bag. He finally fished it out by the frankly ridiculous phone strap attached to it, and hurriedly answered, frantically tugging his warmup suit on over his practice clothes.

The sudden flurry of motion caught the eye of Yamagata and Ushijima, who were discussing a formation they had been practicing that day. Tendou ended his call, looking down at his phone with a calculating expression, and Ushijima decided enough was enough.

He came up behind Tendou, clapping a hand down on his shoulder, and telling him, "Go. We'll cover for you tonight." Tendou looked ecstatic, pulling Ushijima into a quick, fierce hug, and ruffling Yamagata's hair fiercely as he practically bounced out the door.

Yamagata peered out the door after him, bemused, and turned to make some comment at Ushijima, only to be stopped short at the downright bewildered expression on his face. He decided right then and there that Ushijima Wakatoshi deserved more genuinely happy hugs from everybody - but that's a story for another day.

Tendou snuck out of campus as best he could, making his way back home, practically sprinting to catch the right train, texting his parents on the way that he would be coming as quickly as he could. When he burst in his own front door, his mother was there, already ready to reprimand him, but one look at the expression on his face had her smiling fondly at him instead, showing him where the box for Hinata had been set up. She did quietly tell him that she expected him to go straight back to his dorm as soon as possible after the births.

Tendou kept a respectful distance from Hinata as she gave birth, remembering from his research that she might be in too much pain to recognize him. He watched intently while she delivered five perfect little kittens, grooming each one after it had arrived.

Afterwards, he stroked her head while she nursed her babies, cooing to her and making sure she was comfortable and had enough food and water in her reach. He cleaned up, not wanting his parents to have to bother with the mess - no matter how much they loved his cat, she was still his cat, and he made sure to keep any unnecessary burden from his parents' shoulders.

He said his goodbyes to his parents, hugging his mother goodbye and slipping out of the door. He just made it to the last train of the night, skidding onto it just seconds before the doors closed. He checked his phone for texts, seeing that Oohira had texted to asked how everything went, and then one from Ushijima telling him to hurry, because it was nearly curfew.

Tendou arrived back at the dorms out of breath from sprinting back. He burst through Ushijima's door in as triumphant a manner as he could. It was only slightly spoiled when he sat down hard on the floor bare seconds later to catch his breath. Ushijima didn't even look up until he finished with reading through the page he was on in the latest Shonen Jump.

By the time Ushijima was finished with (Tendou's) magazine, Tendou had managed to catch his breath, and was fishing his phone from his pocket in preparation for gushing. Ushijima shifted closer, their shoulders barely brushing as he leaned closer to see the pictures Tendou was pulling up on the screen. Tendou began absolutely gushing about his perfect cat and her perfect little cat babies, and Ushijima made affirming noises in all the right places, even commenting a little occasionally.

Eventually, the sound of conversation brought other teammates to Ushijima's room, starting with Yamagata. He peered around the door, and then came to sit on Tendou's other side, and Tendou obligingly went through all his pictures of the kittens from the very beginning for him.

By the time Goshiki made it to the room, the three of them were deep in a discussion about possible names for the kittens. Ushijima was all for naming the five kittens after famous volleyball players, or even teammates. Yamagata suggested naming them after food items, but that just started an amicable argument about which foods were worthy of being names for these five most perfect beings.

By the time Goshiki had sat down, the conversation about names was winding to a standstill as none of them could find names to suit the kittens. Goshiki asked to see the pictures, and Tendou happily went through them again for him, while Ushijima and Yamagata shared amused glances over their heads at their enthusiasm.

By the time Tendou got through the end of the album of pictures he had taken of the kittens in only a few hours, Goshiki had a good idea for names for the kittens. He suggested that, since the kittens' mother was named after an anime character, he do the same for the kittens.

This precipitated an animated discussion over which characters the kittens resembled most, and in about half an hour, the kittens' names had been sorted out, and Tendou texted them to his parents. The last thing Tendou did that night before collapsing into bed was promise Goshiki he could visit to see the kittens.

The sleep Tendou got that night was the best he'd had in the three years at Shiratorizawa, with the knowledge that his beloved cat was safe and happy, and the happy feeling of friendship permeating his dreams.


End file.
